2019 IS THE YEAR OF NEW MUSEUMS

Museums are great attractions for visitors around the world. Many deem them as the main motives of their trips, others as secondary ones. Nevertheless, every year millions of people travel worldwide to visit the most famous museums, from the Louvre in Paris to the Vatican Museums.

This year will be an important year for museum enthusiasts, as many openings, as well as expansions, are planned in this sector. Here are some of the most important new museums.

On March 29, the National Museum of Qatar will be opened in Doha. The building, designed by Frenchman Jean Nouvel, is inspired by the desert rose and will become one of the most important cultural and architectural destinations in the city.

The museum will be divided into three areas. Firstly, the beginnings, with objects from the geological period before urban settlements. Secondly, “Life in Qatar” and the last period of “Building the Nation”.

In spring, the new branch of the Center Pompidou is also scheduled to open in Shanghai. After ten years of failed attempts, the gallery will finally be placed in a wing of the new West Bund Art Museum of 25 thousand square meters with exhibitions that will arrive directly from Paris.

In the summer, the focus is on New York. In the Big Apple, the famous Museum of Modern Art will expand its exhibition space by 30%, with spaces dedicated to contemporary design in cinema. Meanwhile, in April, Chelsea, the artistic district of Manhattan – the Shed – will open. It will host exhibitions, ballets, comedies, and concerts.

In September, a new museum complex will be inaugurated in Berlin, the Humboldt Forum, in the renovated spaces of the Royal Palace. It will hold collections of non-European and Asian ethnic art, a permanent exhibition of the city’s history and areas for temporary exhibitions. Also in autumn, in Vienna, the new 1,700 square meter branch of the Albertina Museum will be presented: in the Künstlerhaus building, where the 1,323 works of contemporary art of the prestigious Essl Collection will be exhibited.

At the end of the year, it will be up to Moscow to cut the ribbon of a new gigantic art center of the VAC Foundation designed by Renzo Piano in a former power plant near the Kremlin. The new structure of about 20 thousand square meters, will host not only artistic works but also a district for artist residences, an auditorium, a library, and a bookshop.

Meanwhile, it will take another year, in 2020, to finally walk in the halls of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, a stone’s throw from the Pyramids of Giza, whose opening date has been postponed once again. It will have about 50 thousand objects but above all the famous treasure found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.  It is often labeled the “largest archaeological museum in the world”, valued at one billion dollars. It will also have 28 shops, 10 restaurants, a conference center, and a cinema.